erbacce-press
Weeds grow where they want to; not where they're told to...
The 2019 erbacce-prize for poetry selection-team have a winner.
A HUGE thank-you to the close-to eight thousand poets who participated.
NUMBERS: This year we had more entries than ever; just under eight thousand submissions for the erbacce-prize and as always we have had entries from every country in the world. We narrowed it down to a long list which we list below and also have an outright winner plus no less than THREE runners-up (Sorry; we just couldn't split them).
WHY THE ERBACCE-PRIZE? The reasons why so many poets support the erbacce-prize is that it is free-to-enter AND (most importantly) it is totally unbiased. If you're a big-name poet it makes no difference because the judges/selectors never see the name of the poet, where they are from or even their gender until we get down to the final few. If you win the erbacce prize for poetry then you know you really won it purely on merit and NOT because some Capital-driven publisher thinks they can cash-in on a big name.
MALE/FEMALE: Insofar as we can tell from names there appears to be a slight increase in submissions from Males which is different to the past five years when we had about 5% more female submissions. All-in-all though the balance is still just a little short of 50/50. Also submissions from the UK have increased, probably due to the publicity given to the erbacce-prize from The Poetry Library and other publishers for which we are grateful.
Our winner will receive a publishing contract with erbacce for publication of his/her works in a perfect-bound book, the three runners-up will be offered a chap-book or perhaps a perfect-bound, then we selected four poets to be featured poets in our quarterly journal, as featured poet one half of the journal will be devoted entirely to their poems and an interview with one of the erbacce-judges.
WARNING for anyone submitting in the future! Despite REPEATED requests over the years to ensure your email address actually MATCHES your REAL NAME many submissions did not meet this standard request. EVEN some of these in the winners' lists. IF (for example) we choose Aaron Kent as a winner then to notify him we will look for Aaron Kent in the email lists. If it doesn't appear to be there then we'll delete him and move to the next poet! If you are on the list below then PLEASE CHECK you have a recognisable email address and contact us if necessary.
And to those eight thousand others who never made the cut; don’t lose heart, the standard is VERY high and exactly what constitutes ‘great poetry’ is debatable.
Here is a FULL list of the poets we shortlisted and believe me the debate was passionate. Following the list below we announce the full list of the eight poets (Just had a thought; we had eight thousand submissions so each is at least; one-in-a-thousand!)
Aashika Suresh: India
Adam Levon Brown: USA
Adele Evershed: USA
Amelia Walker: UK
Amy Hayhurst: UK
Amy McGinn: Eire
Andrea Ferrari Kristeller: Argentina
Angela Platt: Wales
Ben John Sears: Wales
Bernard Lord: France
Bill Lythgoe: UK
Caroline Maldonado: UK
Charlotte Linda Gormley: UK
Cheryl Skory Suma: Canada
Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto: Nigeria
Clementine Ewokolo Burnley: Germany
Colin Dardis: Ireland
Darcy Woodbury: USA
David Holper: USA
Denni Turp: Wales
Des Mannay: Wales
Dominic James: UK
Don A. Hoyt: USA
Drew Pisarra: USA
Elana Rubin: USA
P Atkinson: UK
Fabiyas M V: India
Faustino A. Guerrero: USA
George Beddow: UK
Gerry Stewart: Finland
Gili Haimovich: Israel
Heilien Diedericks: UK
J.W. Iwanski: USA
Jane Katherine Angué: France
Jim Bohen: USA
Jo Weston: UK
Joe Osmond: UK
John Paul Davies: Ireland
Julie Fisher: UK
Karen Tobias-Green: UK
Konstandinos Mahoney: UK
Lauren Rea: UK
Laurence Bainbridge: UK
Laurence Morris: UK
Linda Burnett: UK
LindaAnn LoSchiavo: USA
Lisa J Asmat Johnson: UK
Lisa Lopresti: UK
Lorna Elizabeth Wood: USA
Louis D. Lo Praeste: USA
Luke David Brand: UK
Mara Adamitz Scrupe: USA
Margarita Serafimova: Bulgaria
Maria Louise Borland: UK
Martin Kerr: UK
Martin Nathan: UK
Matthew Birch: UK
Mervyn Linford: UK
Minney Richani: Australia
Moss Peri: UK
Myles Dunnett: UK
Natalie House: UK
Neil Beardmore: UK
Ojo Taiye: Nigeria
Onis Sampson: Nigeria
P Atkinson: UK
Patrick William Green: UK
Peggy Landsman: USA
Peter D Lyons: Eire
Ray Malone: Germany
Rebecca R Jay: USA
Rebecca Ruth Gould: UK
Roderick A Scott: Scotland
Roderick Manson: Scotland
Rodney Wood: UK
Roger Elkin: UK
Roshni Gallagher: UK
Rumjhum K Biswas: India
Samuel Zane Farrell: Russia
Sanjeev Sethi: India
Sarah Barr: UK
Scott Elder: France
Selma Cardoso Carvalho: UK
Thomas E. Irvine: UK
Tracey Ball: Italy
Ugonna-Ora Owoh: Nigeria
Uma Menon: USA
Vishal Gulati: UK
Welton B. Marsland: Australia
Zahra Khan: Ireland
AND... the WINNER is:
P D Lyons
The selectors thought his work to be unpresumptuous, understated, witty and studied …two judges spoke also of the ‘gut-emotion’ of his poetry with one adding: ‘…there is an unpretentious passion and a way with written sound reminiscent of Thomas …some of his poetry is like hot buttered toast which coats the senses with a delicious warmth that pulls you in, forms connections with the reader's perception and keeps them, strong and taught until the last line is read.’
We debated long and late about a runner-up but in the end (when the bottle of Bushmills lay empty) we had to conclude we couldn't separate no less than THREE other poets; they are:
Zahra Khan, Mara Adamitz Scrupe & Ojo Taiye
The final four; who will be interviewed and highlighted in the quarterly erbacce journal are:
Margarita Serafimova, Scott Elder, Jo Weston & Des Mannay...
...and that's it for 2019! If you missed the cut this time start planning ahead for the erbacce-prize 2020... and thanks once again to the eight thousand world-wide who participated... you are ALL winners to someone...